Gregg Fryett was the chairman of Sustainable AgroEnergy, a company that invested in jatropha oil plantations in Cambodia.
The scheme, which attracted £23m worth of investment via self-invested personal pension schemes (Sipps) went bust when the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) obtained a freezing order against the company in February 2012.
At the time, Fryett unsuccessfully tried to appeal the decision to freeze the assets after claiming that the original order was obtained “through dubious disclosure and incomplete process”.
Following a trial that lasted three years, Fryett was sentenced to eight years in prison and fined KHR10m ($2,413, £1,964, €2,311), reports the Torquay Herald Express.
He was found guilty of charges including fraud by aggravating circumstances, bribery and faking public documents.
Fryett has denied any wrongdoing and said he will appeal the conviction.
“I have spent 30 months in trial which has patently proven that the prosecutor has neither evidence or victim of a crime or authority to prosecute,” he said.
